The Hall

The Hall is a house dating from the early 14th century, with significant alterations in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is constructed of rubble stone and ashlar, rendered, with a graduated stone slate roof. The building is composed of two distinct parts: an original 14th-century hall house, to the left, and a 18th-century wing set back to the right. The 18th-century wing is three storeys and four bays wide and features quoins. A 6-panel door with glazed upper panels is located in the left-hand bay, while other bays contain tripartite sash windows with central four-pane sashes. There are also sash windows with glazing bars and 6-pane sashes on upper floors. Blind openings are present in the upper bays. The building has two ridge stacks and an end stack. The medieval hall house has two 16-pane 2-light side-sliding sash windows on the ground floor, with tall sashes featuring glazing bars and Gothick pointed-arched heads in original 14th-century pointed arches with continuous hoodmoulds on the first floor. A side-sliding sash with glazing bars is found on the second floor. The roof is hipped with a side wall stack. The rear of the medieval hall has a deep moulded first-floor string course. A thin, blind, chamfered, rectangular opening leads to the rear staircase. The interior of the 18th-century wing includes an early 18th-century dogleg staircase with thick turned balusters, extending up to the attic storey, likely reset. The medieval wing contains a three-bay vaulted undercroft with chamfered ribs supported on round piers, octagonal capitals, and moulded corbels. A moulded 4-centred arched fireplace is present on the north wall. A tunnel connects the end wall to the outside wall, supporting a staircase above, potentially original to the building. C18 rooms were inserted on the first floor, where the large hall originally stood. The third storey reveals the heads of two 13th-century windows. A blocked 13th-century window remains on the right return wall, similar to the others but with its central mullion and tracery intact. The roof trusses in this section date to the 17th century. The hall likely originated in 1342, when a Hospital of St Richard was founded, and likely served as its housing until the present almshouses were built in 1758.